Why did we build Lightning Pay?

Connecting New Zealand to the Bitcoin Lightning Network

Written by Brandon - Lightning Pay Team

Updated June 6, 2024

 

When we set out on our journey to build Lightning Pay, we had one goal in mind, to bring the Bitcoin Lightning network to New Zealand. 

Rob, Simon and I are all Bitcoiners. Simply put, this means we think the world requires better money, and that Bitcoin stands as the best opportunity for this to become a reality.  

  • People should be able to save their money, and not have its value evaporate via inflation, forcing them to become part-time investors.
  • Money should be used at the sole discretion of its owner, and should not be used to enforce rules, project power, or censor.
  • Money should be able to be sent from one person to another, instead of being a means by which large entities extract value from society because they have exclusive permission to do so. 
  • People should not have all of their transaction data collected, shared and sold without their permission. A basic level of privacy should be inherent to our money. 

 

We started building Lightning Pay because we want this in New Zealand, a place we all live, and a place we all love.

We all met as part of the wider Bitcoin community in New Zealand, have had many discussions about the place we live, and how Bitcoin adoption in our country lags far behind other parts of the world. 

 

Using Bitcoin as a Store of Value

Bitcoin is available for purchase in New Zealand from a limited number of places. The relative isolation of our economy through the New Zealand Dollar, and the resistance of our banking system make the creation of a robust ecosystem of bitcoin service providers very challenging. 

Lightning Network Access

Even more, onboarding people to the Lightning Network is even harder, as none of the current service providers offer a great way to get from NZD to bitcoin on the Lightning Network.

Bitcoin as a medium of exchange

There are still very few companies in New Zealand that accept bitcoin as payment. This limits options for bitcoin owners to use their bitcoin as a medium of exchange.

 

With that in mind, the question we began to ask ourselves was, how might we jumpstart bitcoin adoption in New Zealand by focusing on using the available bitcoin technology to solve real-world problems, specifically for Kiwis? 

Our answer, connect New Zealand to the Bitcoin Lightning Network.